Tiffstitches a Blog!

Ack! I'm late! I'll quickly get this photo up since I have it on my computer and I'll get the rest up throughout the day.  Yesterday was the day to post for the Turtle Trot SAL run by Claudette over at BAP Attack. It's a great SAL in that you just do your best to stitch what you can on your 13 projects each month. This past month I managed to finish one! I also managed to start another project , but that can wait for a future post.  My finish is #6 Christmas Drop by AAN. I wasn't sure if...

I hope everyone had a fun IHSW, even if you didn't get to stitch as much as you wanted. Does that ever happen? I'm very happy to announce I actually finished something! This was a WIP from around September 2011, so it's nice to cross something off that huge list of WIPs I have. I'm happy to present: Christmas Drop by AAN! The main ornament is stitched with DMC satin, I think it was 666, and the yellow is Soie Crystale, but I lost the tag. Hopefully you can read it says "Merry Christmas" in the middle. The top ribbon is...

I thought I might have a finish for this month, but I got distracted by a new project.  No one is more surprised than me..... But on to updates: 6. Christmas Drop by AAN. I decided to use some lovely gold silk thread from Soie Crystale for the embellishments and the writing. And I went with French knots instead of beads. I like the look overall. I had started stitching the ribbon at the top in the DMC satin, but I fell in love with a Waterlilies Holiday thread and am going to use that instead. I haven't quite picked out all...

For this IHSW, again hosted by the lovely Joyce of Random Ramblings, I dragged out one UFO and a WIP to work on.  This is AAN's Christmas Drop and I used up all my satin DMC. So I have to get some more. I had picked up some WDW in Whiskey and another golden yellow colour, but I might just get another silk for the contrasting colour. I'll have to have a look at what the Whistling Duck has. They have quite a few silk thread brands, so I might find the perfect one.  And this is a miniscule start on...

If you're like me, then you've started more projects lately than you've completed. So I've decided to join the Turtle Trot SAL over at BAP Attack. I don't have as many WIPs as she does, but I have more than I'd like. So in 2013 I'll try and work on these projects more than starting any new ones. Join in if you've got a pile of WIPs/UFOs you'd like to work on! Alright, so now I must decide for sure on 13 patterns to work on this year. My last post gave hints of what I'd like to work on, but...

I completed several projects this year, but I still have a few lingering WIPs I had hoped to complete. Since the Xmas Xstitching Challenge I joined last year kind of fizzled out I didn't keep up with my Xmas stitching and got distracted by other projects, like that huge carnival piece. I'm hoping 2013 I will actually keep myself on track and finish a few pieces, although I also have several new starts I'd like to make. My plan is to join the Turtle Trot SAL over at BAP Attack and work on 13 WIPs/UFOs. My list has been changing almost...

I completed stitching the 12 Days of Xmas the night before we left for our visit home, but I still needed to attach the backing fabric. We had some spare time when we were visiting friends, so I started pinning then and got 3 sides sewed, 2 long and one short. I left the short side open so I could flip the piece back the correct way. I completed stitching the short side at my parents while hiding the piece itself in my stitching bag. It was complicated, but it all came out all right in the end. One end, "On...

Thank you to Joyce of Random Ramblings for hosting IHSW the entire year! It was a lot of fun to see everyone's stitching and meet a ton of other stitchers.  This weekend I managed to finish the drummer, so all 12 motifs are complete! I'm still working on finishing the heart, I managed to stitch most of it, but there's still some backstitch to complete.  Here's the entire piece, so I'm mostly finished. I had DH wash the blue lines out today and some of the dark reds and green bled!  So annoying since I used all DMC, including the metallics. And let me say just...

I finished another one! The Geese-A-Laying is complete and only one more motif to finish, then another heart at the end.  I've started on the Drummer for the 12th day, but I don't think I'll finish this month since today is the last day! I should still finish in plenty of time for Xmas though.  I also participated in a Christmas ornament exchange on the Cross Stitch Forum. I forgot to take a picture of the ornament I sent, but my exchange recipient posted one. I stitched a Mill Hill kit, it was a lot of fun, and the beading, although...

As usual, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to stitch, but I still accomplished by goal of finishing Day 5 of the 12 Days of Xmas. I didn't quite finish Day 11, but a fair amount of the cross stitch is done for him. So 2 1/2 to go, plus a heart at the end all in metallics, thankfully I have Thread Heaven to make it possible. I think I have a good chance of completing the stitching this month, and that would be a unique experience. I'm usually finishing stitching December 24! Hope everyone had...

I had all day Sunday to stitch and an unexpected day off Wednesday, so I managed to finish off Days 3,4,9, and 10. Over halfway done now, so hopefully I'll have time to complete the entire design in time to get it finished completely for Xmas. Here are the photos: The French Hen and the Lady Dancing for Days 3 and 9 respectively were fairly lengthy to complete compared to Days 4 and 10. I do like the look of them though. The 4 Calling Birds look a little like fish to me, but oh well. I do like the enthusiastic...

Some of you may remember this post about how my name got selected for Lizzie Kate's new Flip-It winter series, 6 Snow Belles. I received all 6 charts as of last week, plus a couple excellent new charts: Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm keeping these 2!! And I'm going to keep 3 of the 6 Snow Belles, but I will be giving 3 of them away. All you have to do is comment on my blog and let me know which chart you'd prefer. I will give one each to three people. These are the 3 that will be available:...

My LNS, The Whistling Duck, had their Halloween patterns on for 40% off! So I found some great deals. :) Of course I don't need any of these, well, maybe one that wasn't on sale, but that didn't stop me from buying all the threads I needed to complete 2 Halloween patterns. I did stay away from fabric today, so that helped keep the cost down a bit. But 40% off, how can you go wrong? Here are my purchases: AAN's Spider Banner and Bat Banner are pieces I've been considering since she came out with them, and I finally picked...

I didn't have as much time as I wanted to stitch this weekend, despite it being IHSW, but that seems to be how it goes these days. I did get a fair bit completed on the next 2 motifs of 12 Days of Xmas though.  The Lady-Dancing is almost completely stitched and the French Hen is well on it's way. Hopefully I'll finish them up this week.  Earlier this past week I did spend some time on my sort-of secret gift for my DH. Any guesses on what it is?  And I was lucky enough to have a ride to work...

First, the update from 12 Days of Xmas, I managed to finish the first 4 motifs as of this afternoon! I was going to reward myself and stitch on my freebie HAED, but I'm updating here instead, good for me. Here's a shot of the entire piece so far: I'm still enjoying it, and it doesn't have many colours, so it's not terribly complicated. Lots of backstitch though, so if you dislike backstitch I definitely do not recommend this design. I don't mind it so far, I think it adds a little whimsy to the motifs. Here's a close-up of the...

Finally I've completely finished the first 2 motifs on the 12 Days of Xmas table runner. Thankfully my LNS, The Whistling Duck suggested Thread Heaven to control those pesky DMC metallics. I've been working on a Hello Kitty piece that I've already given away without taking a picture . Annoyed at myself, but the recipient seemed to really like it, so I'm glad I finished, just sorry I don't have a picture of it for you. I do have a couple photos of the table runner though! So that's the full piece so far, I've got a lot of work to...

Thank you for all your encouragement! Of course I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I pretty much met my main goal, which was to finish the top 4 rows on the HAED Siberian Forest QS. Even DH will admit it's starting to look like something now.  And I'm getting the hang of parking, so that has made this a lot easier to stitch. I think if I had a month to work on it I would be all caught up, but of course I have a million other WIPs to do! Here's a bit of...

Well, I've been working mostly on my carnival project, and it may be an Xmas present for someone since I'll be stitching it for several months, so here's an update of that piece. I had a bit of decreased stitching over the last week, but I received the GG Rainbow Blending Thread and I'm back at it with a passion. :) I'm slightly farther than this now, working more on the roller coaster on the left side. Lots of backstitch, but I never really minded backstitch. And this is an update of my 12 Days of Xmas piece. I finally have...

For whatever reason my heart hasn't been in stitching White Wolves, so I've started something new. This will be an Xmas gift this year I think. It's large, but not difficult, and there's large patches of colour, so it shouldn't take too long to complete. Certainly before Xmas. Here's a picture of what it will look like. It's from a 2011 Cross Stitch magazine. There's only about 10 colours total and 3 metallics. They call for DMC Light effects, and I already had one that I needed, but I need 2 more. Michael's was out of one colour and their LE...

April was a pretty productive month, I had 2 finishes! So now I have 5 finishes out of 12, so I'm a little bit ahead. Shall we re-cap? Again, this is for Lady Kell's X-Stitching Xmas Challenge. My first finish was a rose coaster in DMC perle and DMC metallics on 8.5 count waste canvas on to ivory felt. I broke 3 needles and it's not an experience I wish to repeat. I think it was the thickness of the threads that caused the issue, but needless to say I will not be using waste canvas again soon.  My second finish...

I started IHSW a little early and managed to finish Angelic Melody!! It's been a long haul since I started her for the Crazy January Challenge last year, but she is finally finished!  Yes, she still needs a little more ironing and then I'll add the strings to her mandolin, but I still feel as though she's finished. A little TLC and she'll be perfect.  I also managed to finish another piece, Lady Kell's 2012 Band Sampler. I stitched it on 14 count navy aida with WDW Bethlehem and Meadow. It was a nice break after the fussiness of finishing the Angelic...

 Hosted by Lady Kell at Diary of a Domestic Goddess No finishes this past month for Xmas X-stitching, but I did get a lot of work done on Angelic Melody. Let's start with her.  So she's well on her way to completion. It's possible even within a few weeks. The wing is all half cross-stitch and as you can see in the next picture, it's only the top banner that is practically untouched.  I've been backstitching and cording, etc. as I go so I don't have a ton left to do at the end. I'm going to leave the strings on the...

This month brings another finish! I was able to find another LNS, and I really need a separate post to gush about how exciting that is, but the important point is they had both WDW Ivy and Autumn Leaves to allow me to finish this piece.  as you can tell I haven't ironed it yet, but I did thumbtack it to the wall and it makes me happy to look at it completed. I was really feeling bogged down by the number of WIPs I had going, so having another completion feels really, really good. A friend mentioned since it's on...